I WROTED SOMETHING.
Aug. 14th, 2010 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esmenet
And I am so happy about this that I'm going to share some of it with you! In all of its terrible first-draft-of-a-first-draft glory. :D
There is a teashop in Ba Sing Se. It is cheap, and clean, and the tea is very good, even if the waiter is said to be the grouchiest young man in the entire city. The Dai Li go there often, smiling when the owner greets them by name, and get free refills of their tea. They politely ignore the twin swords hanging just inside the kitchen, and try good-naturedly again and again to get some kind of friendly conversation from the perpetually grumpy Li.
(It hasn’t worked yet, but Lan and Ming at least are convinced they’re getting somewhere.)
They’ve been coming long enough that some of the regulars are starting to smile and greet them, too.
-
The first few weeks he was in Ba Sing Se, he had spent an hour every night staring at the ceiling and repeating My name is Li. I’m from Taku, near Omashu. The rest of my family died in a Fire Nation raid; my uncle and I have travelled a long time since then. My parents’ names were . . .
For the next month, he'd stayed up late into the night staring into the glowing coals of a banked fire. >My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. I’ve spent the past three years hunting for the Avatar. My uncle is General Iroh. We’re not running away, we’re not traitors, no matter what Azula says. My name is Zuko!
Lately, he’s been too tired to stay up more than the half-hour needed to clean up after dinner. He falls asleep scarcely a moment after his head hits the pillow, and dreams of tea and figures and snatches of other people’s conversations, and never a hint of fire.
. . . I don't really know where I'm going with this. But it looks like fun?
There is a teashop in Ba Sing Se. It is cheap, and clean, and the tea is very good, even if the waiter is said to be the grouchiest young man in the entire city. The Dai Li go there often, smiling when the owner greets them by name, and get free refills of their tea. They politely ignore the twin swords hanging just inside the kitchen, and try good-naturedly again and again to get some kind of friendly conversation from the perpetually grumpy Li.
(It hasn’t worked yet, but Lan and Ming at least are convinced they’re getting somewhere.)
They’ve been coming long enough that some of the regulars are starting to smile and greet them, too.
-
The first few weeks he was in Ba Sing Se, he had spent an hour every night staring at the ceiling and repeating My name is Li. I’m from Taku, near Omashu. The rest of my family died in a Fire Nation raid; my uncle and I have travelled a long time since then. My parents’ names were . . .
For the next month, he'd stayed up late into the night staring into the glowing coals of a banked fire. >My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. I’ve spent the past three years hunting for the Avatar. My uncle is General Iroh. We’re not running away, we’re not traitors, no matter what Azula says. My name is Zuko!
Lately, he’s been too tired to stay up more than the half-hour needed to clean up after dinner. He falls asleep scarcely a moment after his head hits the pillow, and dreams of tea and figures and snatches of other people’s conversations, and never a hint of fire.
. . . I don't really know where I'm going with this. But it looks like fun?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-15 02:05 am (UTC)And this does look like fun. I can completely imagine him having that kind of trouble balancing his identities.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-15 11:15 am (UTC)One thing that's always bothered me in fanfiction is how characters always think of themselves by their original names, even if no-one has called them that for months. If everyone calls you 'Li', then isn't that your name?